The Bran Castle in Romania is famous for being "Dracula's Castle." The character that Bram Stoker based Dracula on is the Romanian leader Vlad the Impaler. He received his monicker the old fashioned way, by impaling lots of people in a painful way. He was famous for having a thirst for the blood and always needing fresh victims to satisfy his impaling whims. His association with the castle is tenuous at best. Most people don't even think he visited the castle.
In the 13th century, the Teutonic Knights built a fortification at the site of the castle to provide protection through the pass it overlooks. It was used over several centuries by various leaders to protect against the Ottomans. In the early 20th century, it became a royal residence.
We paid a small entrance fee to get in. Again, our student ID's got us a highly discounted rate and there wasn't a fee to take pictures inside. We walked through all the rooms that are decorated with artifacts from Queen Marie. It wasn't as nice or grand or intricately designed as Peles Castle in Sinaia.
Here you can see a view of the pass that the castle provides protection for.
After we visited the castle, we walked around the grounds around it to try and get a good shot of it from below. At the base of the castle is a nice park and pond area.
Our day had been going well but it all went downhill after our visit to Bran Castle. We had paid the hostel to use their shuttle service to the castle. There were six people in the group and the girl at the hostel told the driver to bring half the group back to the hostel afterwards. Well, this jackass decided he didn't want to do that and took us back to Sinaia where we had been the day before. We tried to go catch a train back to Brasov because it would have gotten us back before he could. Sadly, the next train left at the same time he was planning to leave so we were stuck. He wasted our whole day simply because he didn't listen to the instructions given to him. When we arrived back to the hostel, we complained but they did nothing. Cultural differences.
We finally arrived back in Brasov around 5 pm instead of 1pm as scheduled. This gave us two hours to wander around the town before we had to get something to eat and go catch our train to Budapest. As you can see above, Brasov has a large Hollywood type sign in the mountain behind the town. They advertise themselves as the most beautiful place on earth. It's nice but maybe they're over reaching a bit with their claim.
We walked around the town with the little bit of time we had left. We made our way up through the old archway that looks like its connected to the wall of the old town. Inside of it is the famous Black Church. Even though its not as black as other churches, it still holds the name. It was built in the 15th century and has a legend that a German child was disturbing the Bulgarian workers. One day, one of the workers snapped and threw the kid off the church tower and buried it in the structure to hide his bad deed. The church was closed when we walked by so we couldn't go in it.
Brasov has had inhabitants for over 10,000 years. The oldest documented group is the Germans, like many other things part of Transylvania. Transylvania means beyond the woods and has been contested by the Hungarians since the end of the world wars. The area was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and became part of Romania as a result of the wars. There were many picturesque buildings all over the city and a park that is very relaxing.
Pictured below is the city center at Piata Sfatului. It has been the central marketplace of Brasov since the 14th century. It's easy to see how the open area is easily used as a market. On the day we were there, the city was having a music contest of young musicians playing violins. The square was also witness to some public punishments like witch killings and beheadings.
After our wander through the city, we had a dinner at a local Romanian place with a Swedish guy we met on the castle tours. It was a great meal and we all caught the bus to the train station so we could get to Budapest. Our train ride was great and we met a great Aussie couple who was sharing our cabin with us. It was, by far, the best overnight train ride we've had thus far and we hope to replicate again. We enjoyed our short time in Brasov and hope the old man the hostel hires to run their castle shuttle service is fired soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment